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Palestinian PM agrees to stay on for now

Israel hits militants' safe house in Gaza

REUTERS, AP, Ramallah
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie agreed yesterday to stay in his post for now three days after tendering his resignation to President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials said.
A senior official said Qurie, at a meeting with Arafat, had withdrawn his resignation, which was prompted by a weekend of unprecedented unrest in Gaza spearheaded by gunmen demanding anticorruption reforms.
But other officials at the meeting said Qurie had agreed only to serve as prime minister of a caretaker government, signaling that he may not stay on permanently. Arafat had rejected Qurie's resignation as the former guerrilla leader struggled to defuse the sharpest challenge to his authority since he returned from exile a decade ago.
Qurie, a veteran moderate, had said on Saturday he was quitting over chaos in Gaza. After a cabinet meeting on Monday, he pressed Arafat for security reforms and said his resignation would stand until Arafat gave him a written response.
Since being appointed by Arafat in November, Qurie has chafed at Arafat's unwillingness to cede security powers.
AP adds: Israeli missiles twice struck a Gaza militants' safe house, wounding five, a spokesman for a Palestinian group said, the first Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since internal turmoil broke out over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Israel's moderate Labor Party on Monday demanded legislation to back up Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan as part of its price for shoring up his shaky government.
The two airstrikes, one on Monday afternoon and the second after midnight, targeted the same house in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City on the Mediterranean beach, said witnesses and a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committee.
The spokesman, Abu Abir, said the house was used by Abed Quka, the group's leader in northern Gaza. He was wounded in the first attack.
The Israeli military declined to comment on either air strike. During four years of conflict, Israeli helicopters have targeted dozens of Palestinian buildings and vehicles in Gaza, aiming for militant leaders, headquarters and weapons workshops.
In other violence Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in a refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Nablus at nightfall. Palestinians said he was throwing rocks at soldiers. The Israeli military said he was holding a rifle.
The Popular Resistance Committee is an umbrella group of militants who left other Palestinian factions. Its militants do not answer to outside authorities and often carry out attacks against their wishes.
Some believe the group was responsible for killing of three American security guards in a diplomatic convoy in the northern Gaza Strip last October. No arrests have been made in the bombing, and the US government has expressed dissatisfaction with the Palestinian investigation.
The airstrike came as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat moved to defuse three days of tension and violence over his appointment of a relative, Moussa Arafat, as head of security in Gaza.
On Monday, Arafat reinstated the officer his relative replaced Abdel Razek al-Majaide but retained Moussa Arafat in a powerful position, satisfying some of his critics but infuriating others.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Monday he is intent on resigning but made no move to leave office. He told reporters that in a phone call to Arafat, he said, "It is time to reactivate all our security branches based on the correct principles. It is now time to appoint the right man to the right position."
Also Monday, Arafat told a closed door meeting Israel was behind the Gaza unrest and that it paid $9 million to anti-Arafat activists to undermine his position there, Palestinian officials said.
The officials said he offered no evidence to support the claim.
An Israeli official ridiculed the charges.
"Every time Arafat gets into trouble he blames Israel," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This reminds me of the time he said Israel was using uranium enriched weapons against Palestinians."
Tension in Gaza has also been heightened by Sharon's plan to pull Israeli forces and settlers out of the seaside territory by the end of next year a "unilateral disengagement" plan that has rival Palestinian groups jockeying for position.
However, Sharon is having his own problems over the pullout plan. He lost his parliamentary majority because of opposition in his own government to the proposal. Now he is approaching opposition parties to join his coalition, to restore stability.
In a second day of talks with Sharon's team, Labor Party representatives said Monday they want the parliament to quickly approve compensation for settlers who are evacuated a sign that Sharon is serious about implementing the plan.
Labour favors giving up all or most of the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for peace with the Palestinians a position opposed by many members of Sharon's own Likud Party.
On Monday, a gunman shot and killed a district court judge in a Tel Aviv suburb, police said. Israel's justice minister said it was the first such killing in Israel's history.